MY FOOTBALL LIFE
by akelly99TMR
Summary: this is about someone's (mine) life around football, this could be third or first person but it is first. I hope that is not a problem. Please enjoy, I won't give too much away. The character expresses his views, his problems and angst around his team and football itself, near the conclusion he realises something


MY FOOTBALL LIFE

February 6, 1999  
In front of 31,666 spectators at The City Ground in Nottingham, Nottingham Forest played host to their premier league game against Manchester United. Rooted to the bottom of the table, Forest were definitely not the favourites going into this game despite winning their previous game 1-0 against Everton.  
Dwight Yorke opened the scoring as he capitalised on a cross from Paul Scholes. After a good piece of work Forest equalised shortly after only for Andy Cole to restore that 1 goal advantage. Both men (Yorke and Cole) doubled their tally for the game making it 4-1 and a sure three points on that day for the away side. In the 72nd minute Ole Gunnar Solskjær replaced Cole and added four goals of his own, a truly remarkable feat for any player, especially a substitute.  
The date February 6th is synonymous with the Munich Air Disaster, a truly disastrous event involving a plane a crash and the death of many Manchester United players.  
This was also the say I was born, the day Manchester United defeated Nottingham Forest 8-1, the anniversary on the Munich Air Disaster. My dad, a manc straight out of Gorton in Manchester is a true United fan and has been all his life, he lived through the non glory says when we won the odd FA Cup once every 10 years, you could say it wasn't a great era for Manchester United, to make it worse United's arch rivals Liverpool were dominating that era of football.  
But with the appointment of Sir Alex Ferguson (even though he had a bad start) Manchester United became one of the biggest clubs in the entire world and arguably greatest English team of all time, after a 26 year reign as manager, Alex Ferguson became a legend.  
One of his great feats was the historic treble in 1999, and within the first 3 months of my life Manchester United had won Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League. I was brought up to love the club, to support the club, and to be honest if I wasn't a United fan my dad would disown me. Even though in my earlier years I wasn't really into football, I starting taking a liking to it when I started trading Shoot Out football cards in 2005/2006. I started playing football in school every lunchtime, even went training with New Brighton Saints during the summer but what really made me love football was the 2006 World Cup. I remember watching Germany in the first game and loving it. By the end of the World Cup I would rack up around £20 in the pub by remembering each and every score from the competition.  
I followed football after that more intently, and Manchester United never failed to impress. I must've watched at least 10 Manchester United season review video tapes from the nineties, I watched them over and over, I watched Beckham running down the wing, Mark Hughes knocking them in and Ryan Giggs tearing QPR to shreds.

2006/2007 Season:  
Memories I always remember:  
The 5-1 opening day win against Fulham always sticks in my head for some reason, I'm not to sure why, I didn't even watch the game, but the scoreline still stays in my head. A Rooney hatrick against Bolton in the weeks of his birthday remains a memory for me, as he did the same the following year. I fell asleep listening to the radio during this game, and waking up to find out we drew 1-1 to Chelsea where Saha scored the equaliser late on. We were playing Arsenal and I'm pretty sure we were losing and I had to go home, and missed the remaining goals of game, I remember the excitement of not knowing the score. I watched a 2-1 loss to Portsmouth at my Dads friends house in New Brighton, I was allowed to borrow 'The Treble' DVD off him, I still have it now 7 years later (wow, 7 years is a long time, seems only yesterday). The 1-0 loss on the final day of the season where Tevez scored the winner is in my head, as he joined Manchester United that summer. The FA Cup final of this season was against Chelsea at the 'New Wembley'. Me and my brother had matching United shirts on, but unfortunately we lost 1-0, I wasn't too happy. In the Champions League that season, I vividly remember our away game to Celtic in the group stage where Nakamura scored a free kick for Celtic, and that Louis Saha missed a penalty in the last minute to equalise. Moving onto the Knockout stages, I remember someone shining a laser on Ronaldo during the Lille game to put him off. Then how could I forget the 7-1 thumping we unleashed upon Roma, only for us to eventually lose against AC Milan in the Semi-Final, I was listening to our 3-0 defeat on the radio.

2007/2008 Season:  
This season was rather memorable for me, if I could have a list of the fixtures of this season I could probably get most if not all of the scores correct, and possibly the scores as well. This was of course the season we won our 3rd Champions League and also Premier League. The bad thing I would take from this season would be that we should have won another treble, as we dropped out to Portsmouth in the FA Cup, who would go on to be the eventual winners. I remember watching that Champions League final, I was watching it with my mum, I went to the toilet and came back to see United had gone 1-0 up by a header from Ronaldo. The eventual penalty shoot out was tortuous to watch, even at an age of only 9. I can't exactly remember what I did when we won, but I happily bragged about it the next day at school.

2008/2009 Season:  
This marked United's 18th league title, equaling the record set by Liverpool some 20 years ago. I remember quite a bit of this season also. The first two games where we drew 1-1 and won 1-0, both times Fletcher scored. A dramatic 4-3 win on Premier League new boys Hull City, a 2-1 loss to Arsenal as Samir Nasri scored both (I think), 4-1 home thrashing by Liverpool was a very bad day for me, even to this day Liverpool fans still brag about it, a 3-2 win over Aston Villa where on his debut, Macheda scored a stunner to win the game, only to score another his next match off the club, after then though, I never really read Macheda, I don't like him as a player and I don't even know if he still plays for us. As well as the Premier League, we won the League Cup against Tottenham in final, I watched this rather boring game in the Farmers Arms (a pub). Despite drawing 4 of our 6 group stage matches in the Champions League, we still finished top of our group and made our way to the final, a few highlights are Ronaldo's absolutely stunning goal against Porto (I still rate this as one of the best goals I've seen). Then we got beat by Barcelona in the final who were undoubtedly the best team in the world at that time.

2009/2010 Season:  
The summer before the season started, was the time Cristiano Ronaldo, the best player in the world at that time left Manchester United, I was truly gobsmacked by this, and I heard about it during lunchtime at school.  
I honestly don't remember much from this season, probably because we didn't win the Premier League. A few memories from this season; a 1-0 loss to newly promoted Burnley, a remarkable Manchester derby where Michael Owen scored a 90+god knows what minute to win 4-3, a disappointing 1-0 loss to Leeds in the 3rd round of the FA Cup, a League Cup triumph against Aston Villa, a heart-crushing Quarter-Final loss in the Champions League via Bayern Munich where we would only lose on the away goal rule.

2010/2011 Season:  
This season was a very good one in terms of enjoyment for me, a few memories are as follows: a Dimitar Berbatov hatrick against Liverpool, a 4-2 final day win over Blackpool, a terrible loss to neighbours Manchester City in the FA Cup semi final and an agonising Champions League final loss at the hands of Barcelona yet again, I think United played very well in that game, and against any other team we would have won the Champions League.

2011/2012 season:  
Not a very successful season for United, with only a Community Shield to take away from the season, but the worst part was that in the Premier League we lost to our arch rivals and neighbours Manchester City on goal difference. Memories from season: An 8-2 demolition job of Arsenal, a 6-1 thrashing at Old Trafford at the hands of Manchester City, two losses back to back against Newcastle and Blackburn, a 4-4 home draw against Everton, that agonising and heartbreaking final day of the season and the terrible champions league runs which saw us drop out in the group stages.

2012/2013 Season:  
Probably the best season for me. Just like in 07/08 I could probably tell you the score of every match this season, including that amazing 5-5 last day draw against West Brom. But this season isn't best remembered for that league triumph, it's best remembered as Sir Alex Ferguson's final ever season in charge of United. It was one of the weirdest feelings ever seeing him leave, as for all my life he has been there as the manager, won so much and made Manchester United into the team they are today: the biggest club in the entire world.

2013/2014  
Now here we are in the present, a whole new era for Manchester United. My initial feeling was that David Moyes was the best man for the job at United, and then he was made the boss and us fans had to stick by him, which I still do. But the complete farce of a transfer window, a shocking pre season, and 1 win in three games at the start of the premier league leaves me wondering is Moyes doing a good job? All summer I was left waiting, waiting for someone big to join the club, but it didn't happen until deadline day, where we signed Fellaini in the dying minutes for a fee of £27.5m, £4m more than his release clause that ended a few weeks prior. We missed out on Ander Herriera as it was reported that FAKE Manchester United officials turned up in Spain to sort out the transfer which is embarrassing and is more like a comedy. We now sit 7th in the table, with Liverpool perched on the top. To be quite honest I've given up arguing about football because to just not worth it. Right now I don't mind if Manchester United don't win anything this season, I just want the league to be entertaining. It is now time to enjoy football more and appreciate it more, rather than arguing all the time and stop getting stressed when we lose. Unlike many fans, I am very pleased that Arsenal signed Mesut Özil for a club record, as I rate him one the best players in the world and I can't wait to see him in the Premier League. I'm happy for Arsenal, I wouldn't mind them winning the league to be quite honest, as it would make the season a lot more interesting and unpredictable. Of course I will always want Manchester United to win everything they possibly could, and I will still watch each and every game and cheer when they score as I am a fan and always will be, but I will not mind if they lose out on the League, I will not mind if we lose because I love football and that's what it's all about. I see myself now as more a spectator and fan of football, not a die hard supporter and will not hear anything against their club. I admit my team play badly, I admit it when we are lucky, but I also always give my honest opinions and I admit it when we are brilliant.


End file.
